Bruce Roach has been through a lot with his beloved 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, but he never expected an elk to be the latest thing to send it back to the body shop. Roach discovered the damage Monday morning after the animal apparently leaped onto the hood of his parked car and crashed through the windshield. He had no idea anything had happened when he first went outside around 7 a.m. “I thought, hey, what’s all over the windshield on my car?” he said. At first, he thought the glass had cracked. Then he walked closer. “It wasn’t cracked. It’s gone.” Hair and other evidence left behind on the vehicle prompted Roach and others at the seniors complex where he lives to check security footage. What they saw was remarkable. An elk was chasing another elk through the area when it ran onto the hood of Roach’s car, went through the windshield and emerged on the other side before continuing after its target. “What a disaster,” Roach said. The incident happened outside the 55 and over senior’s complex near South Shore Road and King George Street North. For Roach, the damage is particularly frustrating because the Oldsmobile had only returned from a body shop about three weeks earlier. This is the third accident involving the same vehicle in less than two years. Neither of the previous incidents involved wildlife. A woman backed into the car in one collision, while another driver lost control and struck its side. Roach has owned the Oldsmobile for 38 years and says replacement parts for the rare vehicle can be difficult to find. The previous repairs took time, but he has no plans to give up on the car. He has already been told a replacement windshield can be sourced. “I’m going to fix it,” Roach said. He is waiting for ICBC to make a decision before determining what happens next. In the meantime, he has already broken the news to the mechanic who repaired the Oldsmobile last time. “I said, ‘Are you sitting down?’” Then came the explanation: “Got hit by an elk.” Sam Hildebrandt, the complex manager, was among the first people to see the aftermath. He said Roach’s expression told him something was wrong before he even reached the vehicle. Hildebrandt checked the security cameras on his phone, then went downstairs to the office, where a staff member found the footage showing exactly what had happened. The video was soon being shared online, drawing plenty of attention to the unusual encounter. Hildebrandt said the footage shows several elk crossing from the other side of Riverside Drive and moving into a neighbouring yard. The male elk was following closely behind a female elk. The pursuit eventually brought them toward Roach’s parked car. The male elk ran onto the hood, crashed through the windshield, turned around and continued in the same direction. “He was in hot pursuit,” Hildebrandt said. Hildebrandt said elk are a familiar sight around Lake Cowichan. There are so many in the area, he said, that residents sometimes see them using crosswalks, with drivers stopping to let them pass. But an elk using a parked car as a springboard was a first. The incident also happened during the annual elk rut, when male elk become particularly focused on competing for mates. For now, the 38-year-old Oldsmobile is waiting for another trip to the body shop. This time, the culprit had four legs.
